Sunday School Lesson: Jesus Prevents Two Stonings, John 8:1-11, 56-59, September 24, 2023
Key Text: Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee: go and sin no more (John 8:11b).
In the week preceding Christ’s arrest and crucifixion, He invited those who thirst to come to Him and drink according to Isaiah 44:3-4: “Out of this belly shall flow rivers of living waters.” This indwelling blessing would be available through the Holy Spirit after Christ was glorified (ascended into Heaven). Christ promised that the Spirit would come to live in people. The Pharisees responded to the invitation by sending a group to arrest Christ. Overwhelmed by the message, the group were powerless to apprehend Christ and they returned without Him. The Pharisees mocked and accused the group of being seduced by a deceiver (i.e. Jesus). While the Pharisees accused the people of ignorance, they themselves were really the ignorant ones v. 42. As The Feast Of Tabernacle came to a close, everyone except Jesus and His Disciples went home. “Jesus went unto the Mount of Olives” (John 8:1), where “He would oftimes resort with his Disciples” v 2. Several biblical importance of the Mount of Olives lies in its having been the site of the meeting between Jesus and his Disciples after the Resurrection (Luke 24:50), King David went there to wept at the lost of his son Absalom (II Samuel 15:30), those who returned following the Period of the Babylonian Captivity went there for the celebration of the Festival of Tabernacles (Nehemiah 8:15), and it is where Jesus was betrayed by Judas Iscariot.
After the Mount of Olive Session, Jesus returned to the Temple to teach. The Scribes and Pharisees brought to Christ a woman who had been caught in adultery. It should be noted that during The Feast of Tabernacles, acts of adultery were not unusual. These acts were so common that the officials ceased to put the law in force against it. According to Deuteronomy 22:22, both parties involved in adulterous intercourse were to be killed. In another case, to determine if a woman had been adulterous, in the absence of any witnesses, she might be required to drink a special concoction: In Number 5:11-28, when a man suspected his wife of adultery, an offering should be brought to the priest, and the question of her guilt or innocence would be subject to a test carefully prescribed in order to appeal to God to decide the question at issue–called the Law of Jealousy or Waters of Jealousy (Numbers 5:14). O.J. Baab wrote that the woman was required to drink holy water mixed with dust after she had taken a solemn “oath of the curse” while holding the “offering of jealousy.” If she was guilty, her body would swell and her thigh would fall away; if innocent, she should be free to conceive children. Men who were guilty themselves dared not try their suspected wives, as it was believed the waters would have no evil effect upon the wife.
To look lustfully at a woman is to commit adultery (Matthew. 5:28).
In an attempt to entice Christ to sin, “The scribes and Pharisees brought unto him a woman taken in adultery; and when they had set there in the midst they say unto him in the midst v 3; and, they asked : Now Moses in the law commanded us, that such should be stoned: but what sayest thou” v 5. While upholding the law against adultery, Jesus refused to condemn the woman taken in adultery. If He answered that the woman should be stoned, he would be violating the Roman law which forbade such acts. If he answered that she should not be stoned, He would be violating Moses’ law. Instead, one theory is that Christ wrote on the ground the sins of the scribes and Pharisees. Another theory is that Christ wrote the Ten Commandments, or a message to the Pharisees. In answering the question, Christ applied Moses’ law to the lives of those who had accused the woman. “So when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself, and said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her” v 7. Again, the opponents of Christ left defeated in their attempt to trap the Son of God. The woman was left alone and Jesus stood up and spoke to her, “Woman, where are they? Go your way, and sin no more” (John 8:11).
Then Jesus turned to the Jews who had claimed to believe in him and said, “If you stick with what I say, then you will experience for yourselves the truth, and the truth will make you free” Surprised, the Jews said, “But we are descendants of Abraham and we have never been slaves to anyone. How can you say, “The truth will free you?” Jesus said that anyone who chooses a life of sin is trapped in a dead-end life, and is in fact, a slave to sin and a slave to the father of sin, Satan. Jesus knew that they were descendants of Abraham and He knew that they were not on God’s side. He also knew that they were trying to kill Him in total dishonor. Christ now makes the strongest statement of the entire dialogue: “Before Abraham existed, “I am.” Angered by Christ’s accusation that they belonged to the devil and that Christ was God, they attempted to kill Him. But Christ “hid Himself and went out of the temple, going through the midst of the, and so passed by” v 59. Christ repeatedly escaped arrest and death because His hour had not yet come. AMEN!
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